Ahhhh April in Paris! What a better month to hold an art exhibition. On this day exactly one hundred and forty years ago was an exhibition that changed the art world forever.

On April 15, 1874 a small group of artists put together a small independent art show to buck the establishment of academic painters and salons. This exhibition led by artists Claude Monet featured other works by, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptures, etc.

It wasn’t untilfrench art critique Louis Leroy entitled his nasty, scathing critique in a french newspaper, “Exhibition of Impressionists” for which one particular painting by Claude Monet inspired this title, that the group would eventually be coined the “Impressionists.” It was his, Impression: Sunrise.

When I lived in Paris I was so fortunate to see this painting many times as well as other works by Monet, Renoir and Morisot at the Musée Mormottan Monet, which is in the 16th arrondissement only a few blocks from where I lived. Originally a hunting lodge on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, it is a gem of a museum. It has been bequeathed with many beautiful works of art over the years, most notably in 1966, Michel Monet’s collection of works inherited from his father.

What I love about Monet’scollection here is there are works that seem to be works in progress and those that weredone during his later years when he was afflicted with cataracts. With these one can get a sense of his painting process. And the color palette from the cataract years is much warmer with golds and yellows, not typically Monet but are gorgeous.

It wasn’t until the third exhibition by these plus other independent artists that they gave in and officially called them selves “Impressionists.”

Today on the birthday of this major art movement I wanted to pay homage to the “Artists Independent” who later became known as “Impressionists,” the painting that coined the term, and the Museum where it currently residues!

A side note, Impression: Sunrise was stolen from the Musée Marmottan Monet in 1985, recovered in 1990 and has been back on display since 1991.

These are the artists that participated in the first Impressionist Exhibition: